At the entrance of the wine house on Yanran Changhong Street, there hung thirty red lanterns, with the door wide open and the faint scent of incense wafting out.

Inside, a woman was sitting at the carved long table in the hall, playing the zither, her white veil swaying gently in the breeze. Qian Sen's wine house was on par with the Embroidered Spring Pavilion in terms of profit.

The keen-eyed waiter spotted two guests and hurriedly came forward to welcome them. Jiang Yu did not respond, walking past the waiter without a glance.

Hu Li nodded to the waiter and also entered the wine house.

Obviously, Qian Sen's establishment was much larger than the inns along the official road.

But looking at the bustling waiters in the hall, compared to the inn which only had one waiter, Hu Li glanced around. The wine house had three floors; the first floor was the hall for people to listen to music and rest, while the second and third floors were private rooms. Merchants from various places in Ming Dynasty who had business to discuss preferred to come here.

Some people recognized Hu Li and greeted him one after another.

Hu Li responded to each greeting, then noticed that Jiang Yu had already headed towards the stairs leading upstairs.

"Guest, have you reserved a private room?" Before Jiang Yu could take the first step, he was intercepted by a waiter who quickly recited the rules of the establishment.

Hu Li walked over quickly, and Jiang Yu smoothly took out his badge of the Jin Yiwei from his pocket.

The waiter didn't understand, but seeing the imposing manner of the visitor, he became somewhat timid. Hu Li took a half step forward and whispered to the waiter, "This man came from the capital. His words are more influential than those of the local officials."

After hearing this, the waiter's expression changed, and he quickly stepped back and cleared the way, answering respectfully, "Our manager hasn't left the third floor since returning. He should be in the room on the far left."

The two went upstairs.

The room on the far left of the third floor had a closed door.

Light was coming from inside.

Hu Li knocked on the door.

They waited for a moment but heard no response from inside.

Hu Li and Jiang Yu exchanged a glance.

Had Qian Sen escaped?

Hu Li immediately kicked the door. It swung open with a creak.

When they burst into the room, they saw a candlestick on the round table in the center of the room, with white wax burning.

The windows were tightly shut.

There was no sound in the room, so quiet that they could hear the burning of the candles.

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Qian Sen had always been generous to himself. This room was as large as all the rooms in the Wuxiang Zen Temple combined. It was really extravagant, and Hu Li couldn't help but digress a bit.

The room was quite different from Qian Sen's usual style. It was large, and he had separated the space with thin gauze. The candlelight in between the gauze appeared somewhat eerie.

Jiang Yu drew his knife two inches out of its sheath and rubbed his thumb against the sheath a few times.

A dark figure was sitting on the edge of the bed. Hu Li pushed aside the obstructive gauze and walked a few steps to the figure.

Hu Li was startled and hadn't recovered, but Jiang Yu had already stood to his left.

It was Qian Sen.

Hu Li went to check Qian Sen's breath. After a moment, he lowered his hand and straightened up, saying, "He's dead."

The people in the wine house on Changhong Street had already been evacuated.

The magistrate rushed over with his coroners upon hearing the news.

The magistrate's face was full of worry, and he spread his hands, not knowing what to say. The case had turned several times, and everyone involved had died under mysterious circumstances.

He had hoped to close the case with the body, but now, Qian Sen, who was related to the case, was dead again. The plan to send news to the capital tomorrow morning was also ruined. He hadn't even had a pleasant dream.

The magistrate secretly pounded the table. It seemed that anything he feared would happen.

The wine house had been sealed off.

The Jin Yiwei who had been monitoring Qian Sen in the wine house had been called to a neighboring room for questioning.

Yu Qiu's face was not good as he stood in front and said, "After Qian Sen returned to the wine house, everything was normal. Half an hour ago, he even called a waiter to deliver two plates of appetizers."

His subordinates who followed Yu Qiu nodded eagerly.

Hu Li glanced at Yu Qiu.

Yu Qiu continued, "We had two plainclothes men drinking in the wine house, keeping an eye on the upstairs, but during these two hours, no suspicious person went up to the third floor. Anyone who can go to the second or third floor of this wine house must have some background."

What Yu Qiu said was correct.

Just now, Jiang Yu was also stopped at the door.

By this account, there were no eyewitnesses to Qian Sen's death.

But as Yu Qiu said, half an hour ago, Qian Sen was still alive, eating two appetizers. Then how did the killer leave after committing the murder?

In the room just now, the doors and windows were tightly closed, and the candles were burning.

Qian Sen was sitting on the bed, obviously arranged by the killer.

Qian Sen must have faced the attacker head-on. When he tried to fight back, his martial arts were no match for the killer, and he was killed by a flying knife inserted into his throat. This knife was stable and fierce; Qian Sen didn't even struggle much before he died.

The coroner came from the neighboring room and said loudly, "Reporting to the magistrate, the body has been examined."

Jiang Yu raised his eyes and said concisely, "Speak."

"The whole body of Qian Sen, except for the wound on his throat, has no other injuries. The flying knife inserted into his throat was the cause of death. And the owner of that flying knife belonged to Qian Sen himself."

"How do you know?" The magistrate asked, widening his eyes.

"I found two more flying knives in his sleeve, a set. Qian Sen's name was also engraved on them." With that, the coroner bent down and handed a flying knife to Jiang Yu and one to the magistrate respectively.

The craftsmanship of the flying knife was excellent, and indeed, Qian Sen's name was engraved near the hilt of the blade.

He killed himself.

Hu Li frowned.

The killer was neither the body lying in the government office at the moment nor the Qian Sen in front of them.

But why did the murderer cause trouble again, leading to another murder case that would interfere with the closure of the case tomorrow?

It could only be speculated that it was not a premeditated crime but a result of a quarrel between two people. The killer harbored the intention to kill, and Qian Sen threw the flying knife, but with inferior skills, the killer blocked it and then stabbed Qian Sen in the throat.

"It's someone familiar with the victim. Qian Sen must have known the killer."

"How do you know?" The magistrate glanced at Hu Li and brought up his words again.

"If a stranger had broken in, the owner of the wine house, with such a large business and bustling establishment, would have shouted, and the people downstairs would have discovered it. But tonight, according to Assistant Yu and the brothers of the Jin Yiwei, everything in the wine house was normal. Not even half a stranger went up to the third floor of the wine house. Therefore, it can be concluded that Qian Sen was familiar with the killer."

"And then?" The magistrate nodded and asked again.

"And then?" Hu Li paused for a moment and continued, "Tonight's waiter who delivered the appetizers to Qian Sen's room, is he here?"

The waiter at the door nodded and entered the room.

"Don't be nervous," Hu Li casually reassured the waiter, then asked, "Just tell the gentlemen here what happened tonight in detail. The magistrate won't trouble you."

The waiter recognized the magistrate and cast his gaze over. Seeing the magistrate nodding impatiently, the waiter, as if granted amnesty, lowered his head and carefully recalled, then said, "Our manager always has a small drink at the eighth hour every day. Today, when he returned from the government office..."

The waiter hesitated a bit, and Hu Li said, "You can speak freely. You're helping your manager."

The waiter stumbled and continued, "When the manager returned from the government office, he specifically ordered to send wine and food up, saying he wanted to dispel bad luck."

Hu Li looked at the magistrate, who was staring blankly, and Jiang Yu beside him appeared much more relaxed, as if he wasn't stabbing him in the back.

"At the eighth hour, I knocked on the boss's door, put the food and wine on the table, and left."

"Did you see anyone?" Hu Li asked.

The waiter shook his head, "I only heard the boss's voice. He was sitting on the bed the whole time."

"And then? What time did you clean up the leftovers?"

"About two incense sticks," the waiter said.

"At that time, what was the boss doing in the room?"

"The boss was lying on the bed at that time. I didn't dare disturb him and just took the plates and left."

With that, it seemed that Qian Sen had died long before the eighth hour.

And perhaps the killer had stayed in that room for the duration of three incense sticks, then left the room.